Evaluation of the Concept of Violence in Healthcare from the Perspective of Patients and Companions in a Medical Faculty Hospital

Objective: This study aimed to measure the knowledge of the concept of violence and evaluate the perspectives on violence and violence in healthcare among people who applied to a medical faculty hospital as patients/companions. Methods: The minimum sample size for this cross-sectional study was calculated to be 150, and the data of 206 people were evaluated. A form with 36 questions was used to collect the data. Independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, chi-squared test, and effect sizes were used to investigate the relationships between variables. Statistically, p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.95±12.30 years and 53.9% were female. According to 61.7% of the participants stated that physicians were the group most exposed to violence. According to patients/companions, the two most common reasons for violence in healthcare were long waiting times and indifference of healthcare professionals (HCPs). 83.5% of the participants stated that violence in healthcare could be prevented. 11.7% of the participants thought that HCPs deserved violence. 58.7% of the participants stated that they had been exposed to any type of violence, 42.7% reported that they had previously used violence, and 5.8% stated that they had previously used violence against HCPs. The percentage of participants who correctly identified all types of violence was 23.3%. Conclusion: Similar and qualitative studies are needed to determine the causes of violence in healthcare and to struggle with violence in healthcare.